Notes on the Early Editions of Tristram Shandy

Author(s): John M. Yoklavich

Source: PMLA , Jun., 1948, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Jun., 1948), pp. 508-519
Published by: Modern Language Association

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/459427

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Modern Language Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to PMLA

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 NOTES ON THE EARLY EDITIONS OF
TRISTRAM SHANDY

BY JOHN M. YOKLAVICH

AW. POLLARD, in his brief bibliographical introduction to the

* Macmillan two-volume edition of Sterne (1924), has written
"Tristram Shandy is full of surprises, and not the least remarkable o
them is the fact that its publication was spread over eight years, thu
further accentuating the very leisurely rate of progress of the story itself
I can attest to many surprises that await the man who looks into th
history of the publication of this novel; and these notes-although the
solve none of the vexing bibliographical problems-are designed to give
loosening tug to some of these knots. A brief history of the publicatio
of Tristram Shandy runs:
Volumes I and II, published possibly in December 1759, and announced Janu
ary 1, 1760, in The Public Advertiser,' are dated 1760. Robert and James Dodsley
published a second edition in April, 1760. The purpose of this paper is to conside
some of the bibliographical problems involved in determining the printer of the
volumes and the place of publication.
Volumes in and iv, published in 1761, by R. and J. Dodsley, London.
Volumes v and vi, published by T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, London, 1762
Volumes vii and vIIi, published by Becket and Dehondt, 1765.
Volume ix, published by Becket and Dehondt, 1767. (There exists an inter
esting copy of volume nine, with the imprint "Printed for T. Durham at Charin
Cross and T. Caslon in Pater-Noster Row, 1766.")

The title-page of the first edition of volumes I and II reads:

The / Life / and / Opinions / of / Tristram Shandy, / Gentleman. / [Quotatio
from the Manual of Epictetus, cap. 5, "It is not the things themselves that di
turb men, but their judgments about these things"] / Vol. I [ii] / 1760. [Note th
we do not find Sterne's name, the publisher's name, or the place of publication.]

Wilbur Cross, in his biography of Sterne, states that the "notion which
still half obtains that there was an earlier private edition of Tristram
Shandy, perhaps bearing on the title-page 'York, 1759,' is erroneous,
and argues that since the paper and typography of the first edition o
the first two volumes are essentially the same as those of the third an
fourth volumes, which were printed by R. and J. Dodsley, these publish-
ers must have had "the first edition of the first instalment printed in
London for Hinxman."2 The latest and most careful bibliographical study
has been made by Lewis P. Curtis,3 who concludes that the first editio
1 Lewis Melville, The Life and Letters of Laurence Sterne (London, 1911), I, 206.
2 The Life and Times of Laurence Sterne, 3rd ed. (New Haven, 1929), p. 194.
8 "The First Printer of Tristram Shandy," PMLA, xLVII (Sept. 1932), 777-89.

508

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 John M. Yoklavich 509

of the first two volumes was printed by Ann, widow of Caesar Ward,
in York. He bases his conclusion on these arguments: Caesar Ward,
who had an excellent shop in York, had published Sterne's Political
Romance in 1759, and possibly his two sermons, The Case of Elijah and
the Widow of Xerephath in 1747, and The Abuses of Conscience in 1750.
After Ward died in April 1759, his widow continued the careful super-
vision of the shop with its few presses-perhaps only two, as Mr. Curtis
suggests-one of which was regularly employed for the publication of
The York Courant, in which Sterne, though a Whig, had published as
early as 1741.4
Mr. Curtis assembles an impressive list of arguments to support his
conclusion. It might be well to review the chiefly important non-biblio-
graphical evidence before we examine the strictly bibliographical prob-
lems:
1. On May 23, 1759 Sterne wrote to Dodsley and offered him the manu-
script for the first two volumes; he thought they were worth fifty pounds.
2. Dodsley's answer to this letter is not known to exist, but it is clear
from Sterne's second letter to Robert Dodsley that Dodsley thought
the risk of fifty pounds too great a risk for his brother James, who was
now to assume management of the publishing house. This letter was
probably written in October, 1759.
3. There is a letter from Catherine Fourmantel (but written by Sterne)
to David Garrick; the letter is to tell Garrick about the "two Volumes
just published here" in York.5
4. Dr. John Hill's account in the London Chronicle (3-6 May, 1760)
speaks of the books "sent up out of the country."
5. And perhaps the most convincing evidence of all is the notice in The
Public Advertiser for January 1, 1760:

This Day is published

Printed on a superfine Writing Paper and a new Letter, in two Volumes

Price 5s, neatly bound,

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shanby [sic], Gentleman.

York, printed for and sold by John Hinxkan (Successor to the late Mr. Hild-
yard) Bookseller, in Stonegate; J. Dodsley, in Pall-mall; and Mr. Cooper, in
Pater-noster Row, London; and by all the Booksellers in Great Britain and
Ireland.6

4Wilbur L. Cross, op. cit., p. 76.

6 These three letters are printed in Lewis P. Curtis's edition of the Letters of Laurence
Sterne (Oxford, 1935), pp. 74, 80, 85.
6 Lewis Melville, op. cit., p. 206.

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
510 Notes on the Early Editions of "Tristram Shandy"

Almost exactly the same advertisement appeared, as Mr. Curtis points

out,7 in the York Courant in February.
This evidence, it seems to me, gives considerable support to the claim
that Tristram Shandy was first published in York. I do not know that
there is any evidence of a like kind (letters, advertisements, etc.) that
contradicts it. I have to question only the bibliographical evidence. This
evidence is based on an examination of typography, watermarks, press
numbers, and signatures in the first edition. We know that Sterne, in
the autumn of 1759, hoped to persuade Robert Dodsley to publish his
novel. Sterne wrote Dodsley that he wanted "to print a lean edition, in
two small volumes, of the size of Rasselas, and on the same paper and
type."8 Mr. Curtis, together with Mr. Carl Rollins, printer to Yale
University, therefore examined these six texts: the two-volume edition
of The Prince of Abissinia, published by Dodsley in 1759; the first edition
of the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy; and the second edition of
these volumes, published by Dodsley in April 1760. I have arranged the
following paragraphs to follow Mr. Curtis's examination of the biblio-
graphical evidence:
1. Typography. All three editions are printed from Caslon's pica roman
face. Mrs. Ward had a fount of Caslon type. The black letter on page
82 of the first edition of the first volume of Tristram Shandy is identical
with the black letter in The Political Romance, page 7, published by Ward.
The second edition, published by Dodsley, has a different black letter.
Also, the black letter of Dodsley's third and fifth editions (1760) is
clearly a larger letter, as seen especially on page 87. The Dodsley's how-
ever were publishers, not printers. The Dodsley house presumably em-
ployed a number of printers, and it is possible that Dodsley assigned the
printing job of the first edition to another printer in his employ. I make
this point, not because I am persuaded that Dodsley did publish the first
edition, but because I noticed another similar typographical problem:
on the title-page of the first two volumes appears a quotation from the
Encheiridion which may be reproduced in modern type:

Tap&aoaeL rovS 'AvOp&orous ob rT IIpa&y/gara,

aXXa ra 7rept rE 7W rpa'yP.acrWV, Aoy,Tara.

About this quotation from Epictetus, Mr. Curtis wrote, "Students will
notice that the type employed by Dodsley in the second edition differs
from the first edition with regard to" the theta in 'AvOpwjrovs, and the
gamma in Ao7y#uara. This is true, but one may also notice that the quo-

7 PMLA, XLVII, pp. 780-1.

8 Letters of Laurence Sterne (Oxford, 1935), p. 80.

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 John M. Yoklavich 511

tation as printed on the title-page of the

differs as widely from the Greek letter
differs from the first edition. Different fo
ent ligatures, were used for each title-pa
ond edition. The exact characters of thes
century conventions of the ligatures (om
sigma) cannot easily be reproduced in f
house. Therefore, each title-page must be e
the differences in the Greek characters of
2. Watermarks. Anyone who examines
the eighteenth century will almost certain
marks: the Pro Patria, the Britannia, an
describe them here, but a much clearer k
tions can be had by consulting two stud
debted: W. A. Churchill's Watermarks i
Centuries9 and Edward Heawood's "Papers Used in England after
1600."'1
a. The Pro Patria is a common watermark used, according to Hea-
wood,1l by Dutch makers from about 1700 on. It shows the maid of
Holland seated within a picket fence; she is holding a hat on the point of
a spear. Within the palisade also is a lion holding arrows or bolts of light-
ning in one paw and a sword in the other; the words Pro Patria appear
above the lion. I have noticed this watermark in Herman Moll's Atlas
Minor (1732?).
b. In the Britannia watermark sits Britannia with a shield; she holds
a spear in one hand and an olive branch in the other. Within the thin
circular lines that form the band of this watermark appears, sometime
the legend Pro Patria Eiusque Libertate, sometimes the legend Pro Reg
et Pro Patria, or sometimes a design of diamonds, or circles, as notice
especially in the later editions by Becket and Dehondt. A crown rests on
the band. One common countermark is the crown over the letters GR.
Of interest here, Churchill writes:
One of the marks used to distinguish English foolscap size of paper is the Bri-
tannia watermark. It seems incredible that we had to go to Holland for our Bri-
tannia, but it seems that this was the case. The British watermark appears to
have evolved from one of the Pro Patria watermarks.12

One variation of the Britannia pattern I have observed in Moll's Atlas

9 Menno Hertzberger and Co., Amsterdam, 1935. In this text, especially, are found
many illustrations of the three common watermarks that I speak of here.
10 The Library, 4th Ser., xi (1931), 263-99 and 466-98.
1 Ibid., p. 485. 12 W. A. Churchill, op. cit., pp. 43-4,

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
512 Notes on the Early Editions of "Tristram Shandy"

Minor. The first edition of the Prince of Abissinia is printed on paper

with the Britannia mark.
c. The Vryheyt watermark is in many details similar to the Britannia:
within the same circular band, with one or another of the same legends
or designs, appears a lion with a spear and a sheaf of arrows; on the
panel of the pedestal upon which he stands appears the word VRY-
HEYT. A crown rests on the band; the countermark is often a crown over
the letters GR, with palms, in a circle. Heawood writes:
Paper with this mark seems to have been made in France or Holland for the
English market, as indicated by the GR, which is sometimes found with it in
Dutch books. As a mark for paper of 'foolscap' size it gave place to the Britannia
after the middle of the eighteenth century.13

Heawood observed this mark in a copy of Moll's Atlas Minor, but the
copy that I examined, although it had the other two marks, did not show
the Vryheyt. It is clear, however, that all three were common water-
marks for good paper before 1760.
It should be observed that Heawood's important contribution to our
knowledge of watermarks in the eighteenth century appeared after Mr.
Curtis's manuscript had been submitted for publication; and Churchill's
extremely fine book appeared four years later. Without the help of the
many detailed illustrations in both these studies, it is understandable
how anyone might confuse the Britannia and the Vryheyt watermarks,
as Curtis did. After noting the Pro Patria mark in the first edition of the
Prince of Abissinia and in the second edition of Tristram Shandy, he
wrote :14

Turning thence to the first edition of the first two volumes of Tristram Shandy,
we learn that its watermark is a variant of the above. The picket fence of Rasselas
has given way to a circular band within the borders of which the legend...
reads: Pro Patria Eiusque Libertate. Upon occasion Britannia, less glorious but
now armed with a shield, graces the ornament; at other times the lion, who holds
in an outstretched paw what appears to be a sheaf either of arrows or of con-
gealed lightning, rages alone.
This is to confuse the two watermarks; the Britannia and the Vryheyt
marks are not properly variants of the Pro Patria. Mr. Curtis's copy of
the first edition of Tristram Shandy (which he kindly allowed me to ex-
amine) bears these two watermarks only: pages one to forty-nine of
volume I bear the Britannia; the rest of volume I and all of volume II
bear the Vryheyt mark. Examination of another copy of the first edi-
tion, however, reveals:15

13 Op. cit., p. 484. 14 PMLA, xLvn, 785.

1 I am also indebted to Professor Chauncey B. Tinker for permission to compare his
copies of the first and second editions with later editions in the Sterling Library.

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 John M. Yoklavich 513

1. The title-page of volume I, and those following page 49 (the bulk

of the book) bear the Vryheyt watermark, which is the mark of the
whole of volume II except pages 49-65, which is Britannia. One will
notice, however, a peculiar detail in the pedestal upon which the lion
stands: In this pattern we have a view of the front panel and a foreshort-
ened view of the right side, which is rounded. The word VRYHEYT is
written across the panel, but the letters YT extend beyond the vertical
line that would limit the front panel, and seem to be written on the side.
Many other editions use Vryheyt paper, but in no other pattern that I
examined was this detail noticed. The Vryheyt pattern (figure 167) in
Heawood's article almost exactly matches this peculiar detail, but none
of Churchill's illustrations is exactly like it.
2. On pages 3, 5, 11, 17, 23, and 31 of volume I, and pages 49 to 65
of volume ii, we find the Britannia watermark. One will note, again,
especially clear on page 5, this peculiar detail: the lady Britannia is
helmeted, whereas in all the other Britannia patterns that I have seen,
the lady shows her elaborate curls. Here also I mention a peculiar coun-
termark. Mr. Curtis speaks of this as a "diamond enclosing the initials
G. & ... B.," and observes that he has never again located that diamond
mark. An illustration of this countermark can be seen in figures 222 and
223 of Churchill's text. This mark does not appear in any of the other
editions that I examined; it appears on page 1 and again on page 21, and
must be a countermark for the Britannia, but the more common counter-
mark of a crown and GR is also seen on pages 7 and 19. I cannot account
for this curious fact.
3. Our surprise does not stop here, for on pages 35, 37, 43, and 45 of
volume I we find the Pro Patria watermark, but not the pattern of Ras-
selas or the second edition of Tristram Shandy. Again one will note the
peculiar details in the folds of the lady's gown, the relative proportion
of the lion in the yard, the position of his sheaf of arrows in the clear
yard. The lady's hand is not seen in this pattern. These seem slight mat-
ters-for all the eyestrain that goes into observing them-but I found
that no other Pro Patria pattern exactly matches the mark of the first
edition in these details.
I have emphasized these distinguishing details here, but I came to them
last, after examination of many texts. At first I took the three water-
marks at "face value" and judged that it was a clue that one volume
should be set up from three different papers. As I examined other edi-
tions of Tristram Shandy, The Sentimental Journey, and The Sermons of
Mr. Yorick, I noticed that those volumes published by Becket and
Dehondt often mixed papers with these same three basic patterns, and
some volumes would contain variants of the same pattern. For example:

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
514 Notes on the Early Editions of "Tristram Shandy"

a. A Sentimental Journey, volume two, "A New Edition," Becket and

Dehondt, 1768: Britannia first 82 pages; Vryheyt pages 83-96; Britannia
pages 97, following. But these patterns are clearly distinct from the first
edition.
b. The Sermons of Mr. Yorick, volume four, Becket and Dehondt,
1766 (goes with set including volumes one and two, printed for R. and J.
Dodsley, 1761, "Fourth Edition"). In this volume both the Britannia
and the Vryheyt are mixed six times. See pages 1, 3, 33, 49, 67, and 97.
c. The Sermons, volume four, Becket and Dehondt, 1768 (goes with
set including volumes one and two, printed for J. Dodsley, 1768, "Ninth
Edition"). In this volume all three patterns appear mixed, but these pat-
terns do not agree with the first edition. See cancel sheets, title-page,
pages 1, 19, 51, 65, 99, and 165.
I also noticed that after 1760, Dodsley's various editions of these books
are set up on one or another pattern, and the paper is not mixed; Dods-
ley's third edition of Tristram Shandy, volumes one and two (1760),
was set up on the three different papers, but again they do not match
the details of the first edition. After I had distinguished these peculiar
variants in the papers of the first edition, I went back over a number of
books published by Becket and Dehondt, by Dodsley, and a few scarce
books from the Ward press. It was during my search through Dodsley's
publications that I chanced upon an arresting clue: in Pain and Patience'6
I found a Vryheyt watermark that matches the Vryheyt pattern of the
first edition. Pain and Patience is a thin quarto of only seven sheets,
measuring about twenty centimeters; the watermark appears in the
center of the page along the inner margin; chain lines run horizontally;
the watermark is on its side.
As Mr. Curtis points out, we cannot assume that Dodsley had a monop-
oly on any one kind of paper; and it is a long stretch of time between
1743 and 1760; but, after so many patterns were examined, I think that
it is more than a coincidence that these seemingly "unique" details
could be matched in only one instance, and that a Dodsley publication.
The newspaper advertisements that the books are printed on "a super-
fine Writing Paper" are at best questionable evidence. A similar claim
was made by Strahan for the 1748 edition of Gil Blas but, as Lewis M.
Knapp has pointed out,17 no copy of that edition seems to exist. Actually
we note here that the first edition of Tristram Shandy was printed on
three kinds of paper, all of which bear common watermarks that were
16 A Poem. By R. Dodsley, London: Printed for R. Dodsley at Tully's Head in Pall-mall;
and sold by M. Cooper in Pater-noster-Row. MDCCXLII.
17 "Smollett's Works as Printed by William Strahan, with an Unpublished Letter of
Smollett to Strahan," The Library, 4th Ser., xIII (1932), 285.

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 John M. Yoklavich 515

used in England since about 1732. The Vryheyt paper is used for the
bulk of the two volumes. The peculiar details of all three patterns are
rarely found, but I judge that the paper of this edition is in no appre-
ciable way finer than the paper of Rasselas, the paper of the second
edition, or of many other books of this period. At first I thought that
the evidence better supported Mr. Curtis's claim that Mrs. Ward printed
the first edition, since I thought that the small York shop would be
more likely to use up "scraps" or extra sheets of only slightly differ-
ent paper, whereas the larger house of Dodsley would have more ample
supplies of paper. But this is only to "guess"; and it will be remembered
that Becket and Dehondt often mixed paper in the later editions of
Sterne's work. It is unfortunate that there are so few Ward publications
to examine for watermarks, and that some of those books we have do not
bear any watermark at all.
Such evidence, of course, cannot prove that Dodsley published the
first edition of Tristram Shandy, or disprove that Mrs. Ward printed it.
It was not my intention to take either position, but to look for evidence
for both possibilities. These details must somehow be fitted into the
picture when the problem of the first edition of Tristram Shandy is solved.
3. Press numbers and signatures. The facts that Mr. Curtis reports
about press numbers and signatures are incontestable, as far as I know,
but the deduction need not be inevitable that, since the first edition
bears no press numbers (as Dodsley's publications regularly do), Mrs.
Ward printed the books in her small shop which did not need to use press
numbers. Mr. Curtis also points to the fact that the printer of the first
edition signed "only three leaves of a gathering of eight," whereas "of
the thirty-nine octavo volumes, printed for [Dodsley] between the years
1751-1771," which he examined, "not one has ever revealed fewer than
four signatures."18 This is certainly important evidence, but it is "nega-
tive." Surely some other printer with a small shop, one possibly in the
employ of Dodsley, could have set up the first edition, could have de-
parted from Dodsley's regular practice in the matter of press numbers
and signatures, could have also possessed a fount of black letter type that
matched Mrs. Ward's. These types were as common as the paper patterns.
This is a possibility which I do not put much faith in myself. At best
these are only qualifications that I set up before I can accept Mr. Curtis's
careful argument that Mrs. Ward was the printer of the first edition of
Tristram Shandy.
We are fortunate to have the agreement between Sterne and James
Dodsley with regard to the publication of the second edition of Tristram

18 PMILA, XLvII, 788.

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
516 Notes on the Early Editions of "Tristram Shandy"

Shandy. Sterne agreed to sell the copyright of the first two volumes,
and to keep the "Profits of the Books already printed."'9 Hereafter we
can expect to find Dodsley's name as publisher of the following editions,
but the ninth volume printed by T. Durham and T. Caslon (mentioned
above) is not the only evidence that other publishers besides Dodsley,
and later Becket and Dehondt, sometimes published Tristram Shandy.
Besides the first edition of 1760 and the second edition published by
Dodsley in April 1760, there exist some copies that have the imprint:
"London Printed for D. Lynch/MDCCLX." I examined copies in the
Sterling Library; the nine volumes are bound in three, and though par-
ticularly concerned with the first two volumes, I will briefly describe one
copy of this edition:
Volume I, 1760, contains the two-page dedication to Pitt, and pages 1
to 128 of the first volume of this edition; Volume II, 1760, pages 131 to
264; Volume III, 1761, pages 267 to 416. (There is another copy of Vol-
ume I only, that is, Books one, two and three of Tristram Shandy, in
the Sterling Library; this is exactly like the volume I have described,
except that Books two and three have two title-pages. For a fuller dis-
cussion of these extra title-pages, see my description of a third copy be-
low.)
Volume Iv, 1761, begins with a new pagination, pages 1 to 166; Volume
v, 1767, has the two-page dedication to John, Lord Viscount Spencer,
and pages 174-290; Volume vi, pages 294 to 409.
Volume vii, 1765, begins with a new pagination, pages 1 to 113. Vol-
ume vIII, 1765, pages 117 to 224; and Volume IX, 1767, has the four-page
"Dedication to a Great Man," pages 231 to 320.
All the title-pages bearing Lynch's name are "cancel" pages; the paper
is clearly distinguished from the paper of the text, seems to be of inferior
quality, and the watermark is indistinct. I cannot more clearly define it
than to say that the watermark has two thin lines making a circular
band, which bears a crown; the figures within the band are not clear, but
there is no legend within the band; this watermark can best be seen on
the title-pages to volumes one, six and eight. The paper of the text itself
bears the Vryheyt mark throughout; although it is very similar, this is
not the pattern of the first edition. In this Vryheyt pattern, the letters
extend beyond the panel; and the countermark is exactly the same; but
one detail differs: on the surface of the pedestal, on each side of the pike
that rests there appear the letter P and the letter R. Without careful
examination, one would easily confuse the two patterns. The counter-
mark GR and the crown in a wreath are very clear on page 69, Volume I.

19 The text of the agreement is printed in Curtis's article, PMLA, XLVII, 779-80.

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 John M. Yoklavich 517

H. Sellers, in The Times Literary Supplement for October 21, 1926,

has described a copy in the Grenville Collection of the British Museum
which matches the Yale copy in these details. Mr. Sellers writes:
That the Grenville copy is later than the first edition is shown by the fact that it
contains a dedication to Pitt which does not appear in the first, but in the sec-
ond edition. It is also later than Dodsley's second edition, for whereas in Dodsley
the two volumes have separate pagination and signatures, in Lynch they are
continuous. We are therefore driven to the conclusion that Lynch, having ex-
hausted the copies he obtained from Dodsley, reprinted them surreptitiously for
himself. This seems fairly safe.

C. Wanklyn, in The Times Literary Supplement for November 4, 1926,

has described another copy; this is like the Grenville copy except that
"the first three volumes are separately bound, although the pagination
of these three is carried on from one to the other." Volume vII, according
to Wanklyn's report, is dated 1767. Wilbur L. Cross has described a copy
in the Pierpont Morgan Library:
Except for title-page the Morgan copy is identical in type, paper, and pagination
with The Second Edition published by Dodsley; whereas "the Grenville copy"
in the British Museum, bearing Sterne's signature, is a reset of The Second Edi-
tion. Lynch seems to have purchased a number of copies of The Second Edition
from Dodsley on the understanding that he might put his own name on the title-
page, and, when these copies were sold, to have been permitted, as Sterne's sig-
nature in the Grenville copy indicates, to reset the work on some royalty agree-
ment.20

In the face of this confusion, one can merely echo Mr. Pollard's state-
ment about these editions: "How these came to be published, bibliog-
raphers, who seem to recognize no English books printed after 1640,
have as yet offered no conjecture."21 That is-no conjecture that every-
body has been willing to accept. The evidence that I have gathered sup-
ports the statements made by Mr. Cross and by Mr. Sellers that the
"Lynch edition" is a reprint. (I have not seen the Morgan copy which
Cross describes as one of the original copies purchased by Lynch from
Dodsley.) Whether Lynch "reprinted them surreptitiously for himself"
as Sellers suggests, or whether he "reset the work on some royalty agree-
ment" as Cross argues, perhaps cannot be determined, but I am inclined
to accept Seller's suggestion until the supposed royalty agreement comes
to light, for the book was so popular that it would have invited "piratical
editions." The 1766 edition of volume nine, "printed for T. Durham, and
T. Caslon," may well be a pirated edition.

20 Wilbur L. Cross, op. cit., p. 600.

2 A. W. Pollard, "Bibliographical Note," Works of Sterne (New York, 1924), p. vi.

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
518 Notes on the Early Editions of "Tristram Shandy"

There is a third copy of this three-volume "Lynch edition" in the

Sterling Library, and it is full of surprises. My examination of this copy
reveals that it differs from the other copies in these details:
Volume I does not contain the two-page dedication to Pitt (first pub-
lished in Dodsley's second edition). The title-page has obviously been
added after the text was set up.
Volume ii has two title-pages; the first is Lynch's "cancel" page, the
second is of the same paper with the rest of the text; the quotation from
Epictetus is in finer print, and at the bottom of the page; to the left and
flush with the K signature we find "Vol. II K."
Volume III also has two title-pages; the first bears the date 1761 and
Lynch's name, the second bears no date and no publisher's name. This
is true of all the "second" title-pages in this copy.
Volume iv has three title-pages; the first bears the date 1761 and
Lynch's name; the second has no date and no publisher's name; the
third bears, in the center of the page, under the title, the designation
"Vol. iv" (for Book IV of Tristram Shandy) and below and to the left
of that page "Vol. II" (for the volume number of this particular edi-
tion).
Volume v has two title-pages and the dedication to Spencer; the first
is Lynch's cancel page, dated 1767. Becket and Dehondt were the pub-
lishers of the first edition of volume five, 1762.
Volume vi also has two title-pages, but the pagination (pages 294-
409) ignores the presence of the second title-page, whereas the pagina-
tion of all the other volumes "accounts" for the presence of "extra"
sheets.

Volume vII has only two title-pages, but the second page is like the
third title-page of Volume iv, in that it is marked "Vol. vii" and again
"Vol. II" (for this "Three-in-one edition").
Volumes vmII and ix each carry this second title-page, without date
or publisher's name.
The watermark, throughout, is Vryheyt on the paper of the text itself;
the watermark on the cancel pages, as in the other Yale copies, is quite
clearly not Vryheyt. Since they were merely inserted by Lynch, possibly
to lead Dodsley to believe that Lynch was still selling copies of the second
edition, they were probably printed on whatever extra sheets of paper
that Lynch had at hand.
In the quotation from the Encheiridion, the Greek letters of the "Lynch
edition" are not identical with those of the first edition, or with those
of either title-page of the second edition (volumes I and II). As explained
above, the exact characters and the ligatures of these four founts cannot
be reproduced in facsimile. One obvious variant, a misprint, will be noted,

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 John M. Yoklavich 519

however: the "Lynch edition" substitutes an alpha for the epsilon in

Tapoaaot.
I shall list here a few differences that I noticed when I compared the
Lynch edition with the first and second editions; these distinctions indi-
cate that the Lynch edition is a reprint, possibly pirated, that appeared
after the second edition had been published, possibly after 1767, since
the date of Volumes v and vI is 1767; Becket and Dehondt's first edition
of these volumes is dated 1762; and one notes that Volumes VII and vIII
are dated two years earlier, 1765 (the date of Becket and Dehondt's
first edition of these books). I cannot explain the absence of the Pitt
dedication in one copy.
Lynch edition, Volume I, page 93: after the asterisk (for note) follows
the catchword It, then a rule to separate note, then the note, then the
note's catchword that. (The same rule is followed on page 131 of the first
and second editions, except that the rule, or line, is not used. But on page
95 of the Lynch edition, the text's catchword follows below the footnote,
not above as on page 93. In the first and second editions, the signatures
12 and 13 come between text and note.)
Lynch edition, Volume I, page 95: note "Vide Deventer. Paris Edit.
4to. 1743. p. 366.'? This is not in the first or second edition.
Lynch edition, Volume I, pages 95-99: the French text is set in regular
roman type; italics are used for Latin quotations, etc. In the first and sec-
ond editions (pages 134 ff) the French text is set in italic print, and the
Latin quotations are set in roman.
Note also these differences in the French text: Lynch, line 3: ou une
mere; first and second edition: of une mere. Lynch, line 6: ne fait paritre
aucune; first and second editions: nefait paroitre aucune. There are other
little mistakes that indicate a careless composition of the Lynch text here,
but on page 97 the Lynch text reads " . . . considerant d'un cote" and six
lines lower " . . . d'un autre cote." Page 136 of the first and second edi-
tions shows exactly the same omission of the circumflex; and the same
omission of the acute accent will be seen in eveque . . . eveque page 98
(Lynch) and pages 137-8 (first and second editions). One other interest-
ing and amusing difference leads me to think that the Lynch edition
must have been set up and published quite independently of the second
edition, and possibly a number of years later: on page 140 of the first
and second edition, at the conclusion of the Response of the Doctors of
the Sorbonne concerning the baptism of the homunculi by means of une
petite canulle, we read Sterne's sly suggestion, " . .. sans faire aucune
tort au pere." The Lynch edition reads," . . . sans aucune torte a la mere."

NEW HAVEN, CONN.

This content downloaded from

128.36.7.243 on Mon, 31 Aug 2020 15:36:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms